Aunt Bee's 3-Ingredient Biscuit Recipe

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5 from 40 votes

Aunt Bee's 3-Ingredient Biscuit Recipe

Aunt Bee’s easy 3-ingredient biscuit recipe yields homemade buttermilk biscuits that are flaky, buttery, and ready for the oven in 10 minutes!

Course Side

Cuisine American

Keyword 3 ingredient biscuit recipe, 3 ingredient biscuits, buttermilk biscuits, homemade biscuits, homemade buttermilk biscuits

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Chilling Time 10

Total Time 35

Servings - 8 biscuits (with a 2 ½-inch cutter)

Calories 176kcal

Author Blair Lonergan

Ingredients

2 cups self-rising flour
¼ cup very cold butter, cut into pats, plus additional for brushing(I prefer salted butter)
⅔ - ¾ cup very cold buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spray an 8-inch or 9-inch round pan with a light coat of cooking spray and set aside.
Place flour in a large bowl. Use a pastry cutter or forks to work the butter into the flour until the lumps are about the size of large peas. Alternatively, you can freeze the butter and use a grater to grate the butter into the flour.
Add ⅔ cup of buttermilk, and use a wooden spoon or spatula to stir until a soft dough forms. Add small amounts of additional buttermilk slowly, as needed, until the dough reaches this consistency.
Flour a work surface. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 1 minute (folding the dough back over on itself), adding flour to the counter and your hands, as necessary, to prevent sticking. Pat to ¾-inch thickness.
Use a biscuit cutter to cut out the individual biscuits. I used a 2 ½ -inch cutter here, which yielded 7-8 large biscuits. You can also use a 2-inch cutter to yield about 12 biscuits. Firmly press the cutter down into the dough, but do not twist. Twisting the biscuit cutter seals off the edges of the biscuits and they therefore will not rise as high.
Roll out the dough once or twice more to use up the remaining dough scraps.
Arrange the biscuits in the prepared pan so that their sides are touching.
At this point, the dough will be a bit warmer from working with it, so I like to place the pan of biscuits in the refrigerator or freezer for 5-10 minutes to chill again (but do not leave it in the fridge or freezer any longer than that).
Just before you put the biscuits in the oven, brush the tops with melted butter.
Bake for 14 -15 minutes, or until they're a light golden brown. Brush the tops of the biscuits with additional melted butter when they come out of the oven and serve warm.

Video

Notes

Keep the ingredients COLD. It's really important for the butter and buttermilk to stay as cold as possible. You want those little pieces of butter to melt in the oven, releasing steam and reacting with the leavening to form bubbles of carbon dioxide, which help the biscuits rise a mile high!
Grate Frozen Butter. My dad always freezes his butter and grates it into the dry ingredients, rather than cutting it in with a pastry cutter or forks. Feel free to use that trick to keep your butter really cold, too!
Knead the Dough. By folding the dough over itself (or "laminating") for about a minute, you'll add those nice flaky layers to the biscuits. No need for any fancy process or technique -- just push out, fold back over on itself, and repeat. Don't do this for too long, though, or you'll get the dough too warm.
Don't Twist the Biscuit Cutter. Firmly press the cutter down into the dough, but don't actually twist. Twisting the biscuit cutter seals off the edges of the biscuits and they therefore will not rise as high.
Arrange the Biscuits with Sides Touching. Place the biscuits in the round pan so that they're all touching their neighbors. This will help them "climb" in the oven so that you get that great, tall lift!
Keep the Dough Cold. I'll say it again -- the key to tall, fluffy and puffy biscuits is cold ingredients. That's why I like to place the cut biscuit dough back in the refrigerator or freezer for about 5-10 minutes just before baking.

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